Venezuela's President and candidate for reelection, Hugo Chávez, finished his electoral campaign with a rally on Bolívar Avenue, downtown Caracas, before the October 7 presidential election. He delivered a 32-minute speech in which he underscored the message he has delivered in his previous campaign events: that he is the candidate for the future and that "the life of Venezuela is at stake."

Under the rain, Chávez said: "We have been bathed with the holly water of the St Francis' downpour. We feel blessed by God with this rain. It is the prelude of what is going to happen on Sunday. Chávez is to win on October 7."

He highlighted the welfare programs created in his government and warned that if his contender, opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, wins the election, he would eliminate those programs. Chávez also promised to eradicate unemployment by the end of the following term in 2019.

The presidential hopeful made an appeal to his followers to vote from very early in the morning on October 7. "This bolivarian landslide needs to be turned into a landslide of ballots. Everybody votes Chávez on October 7. The victory is indisputable. We are going to beat them. It will be a great victory, the bolivarian victory, the people's victory," he foresaw.

Dossier

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Brazil on March 13 to demand the ouster of embattled President Dilma Rousseff, carrying banners expressing anger at bribery scandals and economic woes. A banner read "We don't want a new Venezuela in Brazil."